U.S. Vietnam Agriculture Exchange

In March, more than 50 student researchers from Hanoi Agriculture University (HUA) and Nong Lam University in Vietnam presented the results of research they conducted as part of a six-month program led by Cary Trexler, associate professor of agriculture education.

The work was the culmination of a one-year grant awarded by the Vietnam Education Foundation to Trexler and his colleague Glenn Young from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Both are associate professors, Young in the Department of Food Science and Technology, and Trexler in the School of Education.

The grant supported the establishment of a participatory research class in Vietnam, for Vietnamese undergraduates, to guide them through projects related to pre-harvest, postharvest, food science, crop science and food safety. Students’ research was conducted at Dong Xuan Cooperative in conjunction with the UC Davis and HUA’s Safe Vegetable and Fruit project, funded by the USAID Horticulture Innovation Lab.

The students presented their research at two symposia hosted by the Vietnamese universities. (See photo gallery here.) In attendance were professors, researchers, members of the Vietnam Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Education and Training, U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as university leaders, representatives of the Vietnam Education Foundation, and major donor United States Agency for International Development. Additionally, the HATCH! PROGRAM, a community for entrepreneurship, which mentors and incubates agribusiness and other start-ups, invited agriculture sector entrepreneurs.
“The symposia at Nong Lam and HUA represent an important step in this public private partnership, as well as introducing students to the interested business community,” Trexler said.

Young said, “What is most novel about this program is that we have combined the resources of several U.S.-based organizations into a unified program that meets the future human resource needs of the Vietnamese agriculture sector and a bold and innovative program by the MOET (Ministry of Education and Training). UC Davis is cooperating on another Advanced Program in Environmental Management at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture.”

“The students participated in a ‘first of a kind’ agricultural research symposium,” said Dr. Nguyễn Thị Thanh Phượng, Director of the Vietnam Education Foundation. Students are enrolled in the Vietnamese Ministry of Education’s Advanced Programs, with all instruction based on U.S. university curriculum and taught in English, preparing students for Vietnam-based future careers and businesses that are competitive on a global scale.